


Samantha

by Emily_Faye



Series: Incomplete Multi-Chapter Works [3]
Category: Bridge to Terabithia (2007), Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Leslie Doesn't Die, Parent Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 16:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1786345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_Faye/pseuds/Emily_Faye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The original thirty-one chapters of "Daughter of the Dead", now discontinued and soon to be reworked into another story titled "In the Paradox of Wonderland". {on hiatus; originally published on FF.Net from April 29, 2008 to June 6, 2009.}</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Doctor Lewis Howard

Tonight, a strange man named Lewis Howard sits at his computer. He's so close, so close…

POP! The computer dies. Cursing to himself, Howard turns off his desk lamp. Even though his tiny, dirty apartment is pitch black, he knows where to dump his cold coffee, where to find his whiskey bottle, how to find the shot glasses, and the couch, which has its Hide-a-Bed out.

Lewis takes his drink to his bed, and collapses on the soiled, unmade sheets of the Hide-a-Bed. He pours the amber liquid into the glass and swigs. In the act of doing so, his arm hits a manila folder and knocks it to the ground.

Not that he cares.

Right now, Lewis would have burned that folder. That folder…

Though he's only had one drink, Doctor Howard feels as though he's had twenty. He fights the urge to vomit, fights the tears, the memories…

Terabithia.

That's what the boy called it, wasn't it?

Yes.

Terabithia.

He didn't call it Terabithia when he and Maddie Hanson built the fortress in the woods, when they hung the rope, when the felt the magic for the first time. Honestly, he couldn't remember what Maddie had named their kingdom. All he remembered was Maddie.

_Maddie…_

The tears were falling freely as he remembered the first time he met eyes with Madison Karen Hanson.

_Lewis had always been a bit of a loner, head always in advanced mathematics and science textbooks. Everyone had made fun of him, taunted him for not having many friends. Actually, he had NO friends. Not one._

_Until that day._

_The first day of fifth grade._

_The teacher was reading the instructions off the blackboard when the principal entered, a girl with him._

_The girl was tall, with curly, fluffy, brown hair and coke-bottle glasses. The girl met Lewis's eye, he held it._

_The girl…she was… it looked like she was…reading him._

_Yes._

_The girl was reading him. Reading him like a book._

_He looked away. But the eyes were still there, challenging him. Yelling at him. 'Let someone know you!' they were saying._

_But he wouldn't give in._

_Never. He wouldn't give in._

" _Miss Tyler, this is Madison Hanson." The Principal spoke up._

" _I like to be called Maddie."_

_Miss Tyler smiled at Maddie. "Very well then, Maddie. I'm afraid we don't have a desk available for you to sit at just yet. Do you mind sitting at mine?"_

" _No Ma'am." Maddie said._

" _I see you're in good hands, Miss Hanson." The Principal said with a smile._

_Maddie smiled back. "I think so too, Principal Turner."_

_He left._

_Lewis finally trusted his eyes to look at this new girl. Thankfully, her eyes were gone. His eyes stayed on her until she sat down. As she sat, however, mountains of books fell from her bag. A few kids chuckled. Maddie's books were science books._

_Lewis stayed silent._

The scientist was sobbing now.

"Maddie!" He screamed. "I'm sorry!"

Oh yes, he WAS sorry. Very sorry.

You see, dear readers, Maddie Hanson was Lewis's first friend. Ever. They stayed friends until high school. Because, in high school, Maddie and Lewis got in their first fight.

The girl was being offered a full scholarship to a science school in Norwalk. Lewis was angry because he had applied as well, and had not been accepted. They had promised to only go together. They were best friends, after all. But Lewis had not been accepted.

And now Maddie had the mind to go alone.

He was so very hurt by his friend, her words, the words she had said that Friday he could not bear to relive.

And, in the end, she went alone.

Before they made up.

Now, Howard felt remorse. He tried, every year, to get to Maddie. But, she wouldn't talk to him. He figured she was still angry with him for what he said before freshman year began.

Or, that's what he thought.

Before he got the call.

The call the changed him forever.

It was his senior year of high school. Lewis was all packed up, ready to go home to Lark Creek for the Christmas holidays. He was just about to leave his dorm when the phone rang.

It was Maddie's mother, Mrs. Hanson. She was crying.

And poor Mrs. Hanson had every right to cry.

Because, you see, her only daughter was dead.

Lewis couldn't breathe as he listened to the sobbing mother. Maddie had been murdered.

She was on a train, and she noticed one of her classmates from the science school. He was an ex-boyfriend, actually. She stood up to wave, and he killed her. Shot her, right in the chest.

Now, readers, do you know  _why_  Maddie was on that train? Do you know where she was going?

Well, I'll tell you where Maddie was going.

She was going to Lark Creek, Virginia, to make up with her old friend, Lewis Howard.

Now, this drove Lewis insane. He thought everything was his fault. He believed that, if he had pushed himself harder in the sciences, he would have been able to go with Maddie to that school, and they wouldn't have fought. She wouldn't have been on that train, looking for him.

She wouldn't be dead.

So he pushed himself, very, very, VERY hard in the sciences. He studied everything, but especially alternate realities. Maybe, just maybe, he could…

Originally, he had been working in a big office in New York City. But recently, something had pulled him back to Lark Creek.

The death of a young girl named Leslie Burke.

Leslie's face had been plastered over every TV station, every newspaper. Her death, it was so…uncommon. She had been swinging on a rope swing, and it broke, sending poor Leslie into the water, where she hit her head, lost consciousness, and drowned. Sick as it may be, Howard was now obsessed with death, especially those of children and young adults. How did it happen? He couldn't help but wonder. So, he packed up his research and headed back to his hometown.

He learned the whereabouts of the Burke place from some loose-lipped old lady in the town. He learned what had happened to Leslie from her, as well as some other interesting pieces of information.

The old Lark Creek Elementary principal had died the previous fall, and now his son, Earnest Turner Junior, was principal.

Young Miss Tyler, his fifth grade teacher, wasn't so young anymore, and was no longer a 'Miss'. She was now Mrs. Gussie Myers, but her husband, Todd, was sick in the hospital.

And when he went to the Burke place, he found Maddie's rope swing broken.

Other children had found Maddie's land. Or was it just Leslie? He didn't know, but something told him it wasn't just Leslie. This was a land for friends. And somebody else must know about the special place in the wood, because, beneath the rope, was a bridge.

Over the bridge was a sign that read: "We Rule Terabithia, And NOTHING Crushes Us!"

So, the new children called it Terabithia. Nice name. He was determined to find Leslie Burke's friend, get whoever it was to tell him about this 'Terabithia'.

Within a few days, Lewis Howard got his wish. On the third day of his stakeout, a boy, about eleven or twelve, came to the bridge with a six year old girl. They spotted him almost immediately, and demanded to know who he was. Grudgingly, Howard explained how he and Maddie had hung the rope, built the fortress, everything.

This story was the key to the boy.

A now drunken Lewis smiled. Jess. Jesse Aarons. Leslie's friend, Terabithia's King.

His key to Leslie Burke.

Fumbling, he found the folder. Inside, there were clippings from scientific journals, and other information on alternate realities. But right now, that wasn't important. What was important was the notes he had taken from memory, notes about Leslie, her death, and Terabithia from that Jess Aarons kid. You see, Jesse's grief was still fresh, and learning about the origin of "His Kingdom" was rather healing, but he couldn't help but mention Leslie and how they found it.

The notes he knew by heart. Tonight, he was looking for a picture. A picture he had created. Finally he found it. Pulling it close to his face, he smiled.

Though the apartment was still dark, he knew what the picture was of. On the right side, there was a picture of Maddie. And taped to Maddie's photograph, was a picture of none other than:

Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke.

Lewis smiled sickly.

"Thank you Aarons." He slurred. "Thank you."

 


	2. The Invention

Lewis had returned to New York. Jess was beginning to get suspicious, and he couldn't have that.

 _Not that it matters._ He couldn't help but think as he surfed the Net for information on black holes. Suddenly, a page on the Google browser caught his eye.

**ALTERNATE REALITIES: The science of Black Holes**

Feeling giddy, he clicked the link. A recently added article for the New England Scientific Journal popped up.

**Black Holes and Their Powers**

**By Adam Anderson**

**It has been rumored that Black Holes have special powers that can change the world as we know it. Several filmmakers such as Stephen Spielberg have embraced this possibility…**

_Blah-blah-blah. I don't care about Spielberg! Where are the facts, man?! I NEED THE FACTS!_

Scrolling down a bit, an impatient doctor Howard finally found what he was looking for.

**What most people DON'T realize though is that alternate realities due to black holes ARE possible. Though it has only been attempted once, by accident, in the late 1960's, modern science has shown that this amazing and slightly alarming experiment is possible…**

Yes.

Yes.

YES!

He had it! He had it! Finally, he could have Maddie back! His Maddie, Maddie Hanson. He could have the life he was denied.  _She_ could have the life she had been denied. Sure, everyone might think he was dead, here, in this reality, but did it really matter?

No.

No, he decided.  _Nothing_ other than his experiment mattered. If he did it right, she would be back.

_**MEANWHILE…** _

A now thirteen year old Jesse Aarons climbed off the bus with his little sisters, Maybelle and Joyce Ann. Or rather, he got off with his sisters, and their best friends, Alexandra and Billy-Jean. Though he did not want it to be there, Jess experienced a wave of jealousy and sadness. Those girls didn't even know how lucky they were…

Suddenly, he was alone. The girls had skipped ahead, leaving him in the dust, the powdery sediment on his face reminding him very much of the time he raced Leslie down the road, the road where they had found the rope.

Maddie Hanson's rope.

Jess shook his head. That seemed unreal to him, like a dream you knew could never come true, very much like his reaction when his father told him Leslie was dead. It seemed illogical to know that somebody had built the tree house, hung the rope. He knew someone had of course, in the back of his mind, but in the forefront…

It seemed to him that  _Leslie_ had hung the rope, that  _Leslie_ had built the tree house. It seemed like she could do that kind of thing with her mind, her imagination.

An oddly cool wind blew across Jess's face, snapping him out of his reverie. Something, he wasn't entirely sure, but something, made him think about that Lewis Howard man he and Maybelle had met a few days ago. The one who had been friends with Maddie.

Something made him shiver. That man, he seemed…dirty. Sneaky, slimy, like he had a hidden agenda. Why was he so curious of Leslie's death, even the exact date and place? And where was he, anyway? For a few days he had stuck around Terabithia like glue, and now…now he had vanished.

And though he tried to ignore it as he walked slowly towards his house, there was a pit in Jess's stomach that told him something big was about to happen.

_**IN NEW YORK CITY…** _

It's late. Almost midnight. But he can't stop working. He just can't. He's very close, you see. Very close indeed. Doctor Howard consults the New England Scientific Journal.

**To finish creating your wormhole, simply attach the cannon wire to the front proto-plasma port and wait for the vortex.**

Okay. He could do that.

 _Click._ He attached the wire. Twenty seconds pass. And suddenly, the lights dim. The wind begins. The purple begins to swirl…

The vortex has been made.

Lewis smiled sickly.

It was his ballgame now.

The only remaining piece was to add Maddie's picture, as well as his own, which would trigger what reality to create. Fighting the wind, he stumbled forward, towards where the picture was. He un-taped the two photographs and headed back towards the vortex, tossing in the first picture, the picture in his right hand.

Maddie's photo.

Or so he thinks.

Because readers, Lewis has NOT thrown Maddie's picture into the vortex. He made a mistake. He realizes this in horror as he looks down at the remaining picture, ready to smirk and Jess and Leslie.

Do you know who is in his hand, readers?

It is Maddie.

Yes, you read it correctly.

Lewis is looking at Maddie.

The picture of Jess and Leslie has been thrown into the vortex.

He made a mistake.

A mistake he can not fix. He begins to sob. The one he wants to live will never, there is only one vortex allowed every fifty years.

Leslie Burke will be given the gift meant for Madison Hanson.

Do you know what that gift is?

Life.

Leslie Burke will be given the gift of life. And Jess Aarons and his family will be with her, because he was in the picture.

They will get what he wants.

Sobbing, he staggers across the room, for his pistol. If he can not be with her alive, he will be with her in death.

_**LARK CREEK, VIRGINA** _

BANG!

Jess woke with a start. What was that? Could another raccoon be caught in the trap in the greenhouse? Maybe, but it didn't sound like it. It sounded louder, more forceful.

Like a gun.

Who would be firing a gun at midnight, though? Jesse doesn't know. He decided to see for himself.

He went to his window and opened it. Nothing in sight, no noise.

Wait, is that…thunder?

Yes, and lightning too. He glances at the sky. It looks…

Purple.

Yes, the sky looks purple.

As he watches the sky, he can't help but think it looks like something he watched in a science fiction movie. What was it called again?

Oh, he remembers.

The thing was called a vortex.

The purple sky looks like a vortex.

He only has a second to ponder it, however, before he gets a shooting pain in his stomach. He falls to the ground, screaming in pain. However, no one can hear him. No one can hear him scream as it feels like someone is ripping him in two.

Because time itself has stopped.

Only Jesse is moving, he is feeling this pain, because he is being ripped in half. Quite literally.

After all, one half of him has to go to that alternate reality.


End file.
